Poll: The Burning Debate – Kenny or Rafa?
Posted on 23. Jan, 2012 by Dominic Campbell in Debate
Over the past few days Twitter has been running rife with a burning debate. While it seems rather blasphemous prefer a former manager, it does perhaps raise a fair question. Simply put, would you rather have Rafa Benitez or Kenny Dalglish given the choice?
It would be worth mentioning at this point that nobody associated with Kopsource – whether it be myself, Liam or our pet dogs – are calling for Dalglish’s resignation. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and we want to hear yours.
Had Rafa Benitez signed Stewart Downing for £20m and Andy Carroll for £35m then he would have been crucified. Had Roy Hodgson done the same, he would literally have been crucified. Many say Dalglish cannot be trusted with transfer funds, but was Rafa any better in the market? Rafa was never fully backed, but we haven’t afforded Dalglish enough time to see his signings come good.
On one hand you have a great man manager; someone who can stir a fire in the belly of even the coldest of beasts. On the other hand, though, you have a master tactician who is unparalleled in terms of on-the-pitch tactics.
This debate isn’t about wanting a current manager gone. It is simply addressing a question which has been raging throughout the social networking world. Only a fickle fan would be calling for Kenny’s head at this point, but that doesn’t mean as fans we cannot have preferences, or debate.
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88 Responses to “Poll: The Burning Debate – Kenny or Rafa?”
Kopsource.com is the brainchild of passionate Liverpool FC fans whose desire for real and regular news, opinions and statistics could not be satiated by any of the other existing sites online. 
anfield rd dreamer
25. Jan, 2012
Dani Pacheco was a player I had high hopes for but he can’t even force his way into the starting 11 of a bottom half Spanish team unfortunate because if he’d lived up to even half his hype he could of been really good for us. Shame.
Brendan
25. Jan, 2012
Don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for KK, but people seem to forget that a major reason our season turned around last season was the addition of Suarez (a signing Liverpool had planned before Kenny took over). In honesty, some of his tactical moves have been horrible (committing to players adding nothing to the team and leaving players on the bench while they are scoring) and his transfers haven’t been much better (save Enrique and Henderson, who given time will be a solid CM (not RM)).
If Mourinho leaves Madrid at the end of the season, we need to take a long hard look at letting Kenny go
Pete
25. Jan, 2012
Nah, Mourinho isn’t committed to anyone or anything. He would bring a few years of success and then bugger off, then we hire someone like Hodgson and the cycle repeats itself.
Agree we need a B team. Moyes stated that several years ago he was looking to create an Everton B side. But it would take so many years to get the B side up the ranks.
Sterling, Morgan, Suso and the like could play week in week out and we could see how they would really get on..
Agree again with our bench. Every now and then put Sterling on there, same with Suso. Give em 10 minutes whilst leading 2-0 at home or something
Jubes Medina
27. Jan, 2012
Agree with your comments totally Pete but when was the last time we were cruising a 2-0 victory at home!
mick
26. Jan, 2012
the same people that want rafa back are the same people who wanted him sacked…some liverpool fans are really embarrasing sumtimes! call themselves fans!
show kenny some respect for god sake for all he has done for the club, u cant build a team in 22 preimer league games. we are in a cup final for the 1st time since 07 and are in both the fa cup and the race for 4th(yes 4th) 6 points behind is hardly a massive gap wen u see chelsea and arsenal droppin points for fun! we just need a kick up the arse, the showing tonight against man city was the performances we no kenny can get out of his players, it may well just be the we kick up the arse to go on a run of games and show why we dont give up no matter wat, and show the fans we mean business…! ynwa!
p.s any1 calling for kennys head at this point are a disgrace! entitled 2 ur opinion obv but this is my answer to that opinion.
Harvey
26. Jan, 2012
The simple facts are that the players stopped following rafas instructions. No matter what he tried he couldn’t get the players to play for him anymore and not enough time has passed for him to return, given that most of the key players are still at the club. As for this the kenny can’t manage in the modern era, please people don’t buy into the sky invented football in 1992 idea. Football is the same as its always been the team with best players (whether they be bought like city or come through the academy like barca wins trophies
Harvey
26. Jan, 2012
Hard work tryna reply on your phone!
But anyway as I was saying. The reason we came so close to winning the league under rafa was because we had a great team. I have no doubt kenny would’ve took us just as far with that team. The current team isn’t quite at that level. Rafa spent money but also had to sell to buy a lot and when that is the case sometimes your going get it wrong. Everybody also has to realise that this is a different time if rafa would’ve been given the money he wanted then the like of silva and dani alves would’ve been at the club but with not being in the European cup its difficult to attract those players as we saw with mata in the summer but unfortunately we live in a time were anybody who wins a league on footy manager thinks they can be Liverpool manager and everybody knows best. At the end of the day these are 2 very different people with 2 very different managerial styles but both have great records and deserve respect. We should never forget the amazing nights that rafa gave us but we’ve moved on. The next few years hold a different type of promise, for the first time in a long time we have an exciting youth set up filled with great talents and owners who are willing to back the manager properly. When your freezing cold watching us get beat by bolton away (as I was!) It’s easy to lose site of where we are compared to a year ago and that’s part of the expectation of loving a club like ours but we ARE on the right track and WE’RE GOIN TO WEMBLEY!!
anfield rd dreamer
26. Jan, 2012
Mick and Harvey very well said I agree with all you say. The problem is people are looking back and seeing Rafa winning Champions League and finishing second then looking at Kenny 6 ponts off fourth and coming up with conclusion Rafa must therefore be better manager but fact is Rafa inherted a top 4 side that was winning trophies and kept them a top 4 side that won trophies until dumb and dumber nearly killed the club. When Rafa left the side was being asset stripped by two crooks and was a 7th place team, Roy then brought negative attitudes and tactics that led to us being in a relegation battle sitting four points clear of the bottom 3 in 13th place. When Kenny took over we were a million miles away from were we had been during most of Rafa’s time and to add insult to injury Chelsea, the scum and Arsenal were all still strong and Spurs had worked their way up under Harry and City had bought their way up to turn the top 4 into a top 6 so Kenny now has more competition than Rafa had but STILL within his first full season with nowhere near as much money as people think he has spent (same gross spend as Arsenal in the summer who everybody says spent nothing…then say we spent a fortune?!?!?!) we are going to our first domestic final in 6 years, we are a huge 9 points improved on last season (that kind of improvement again next year please), we have the second best defensive unit in the league and we have the third most creative style of play in the league. Yes there are teething issues, yes we are in transition, but we are the pheonix coming out of the flames and are preparing to shine brightly for years to come under the king.
truered
26. Jan, 2012
most of the fans that have negitive issues with kenny probs havent been to liverpool to watch a game and how true lfc support him…shouts of ‘ DALGLISH ‘ ‘ DALGLISH’ being shouted is what the true fans think of the man and his philosophies and his god given right to be back at this great club!
all you haters keep watching the games through your illegal stream, while i watch from the kop with my season ticket giving the big man a true fans support to their manager like others that have been and back him
Free Zumba Online
27. Jan, 2012
Wammy, am I ever glad I clicked to your website. Good information!
Jubes Medina
27. Jan, 2012
Ever since Dalglish re-joined last year i had serious doubts about him. Credit due, he was a god send after Roy Hodgeson but let’s be honest….the milky bar kid would have done better than old ‘Woy’! I have even faced stick by my mates and other LFC fans at the time as i made my view point very public! I am old enough to remember him during his first stint as manager (and when we bought him as a player from Celtic!) His biggest fault is his transfer policy or his ‘Foreign’ policy to be more accurate. Yes, i’d LOVE our team to be predominately British but it’s a Global game and KK limits himself by concentrating on expensive, unproven British ‘Talent’. In essence, he’s only looking at a small corner of the picnic basket whereas if he looked at it in it’s complete context he’ll have more options and better value for money! He did the same when Jack Walker tempted him out of retirement to lead Blackburn to glory. At the time, Blackburn were one of the two or three richest clubs in England thanks to Jack’s hundreds of million of pounds. Now with all that money on disposal (much more than the majority of of clubs in Europe) who does he buy? Some media hyped right back from Blackpool for a ridiculous sum. The player was so obscure i can’t even remember his name. Fair enough he bought the young british talent that was to become Alan Shearer but that was just an exception. He spent vast sums on the likes of Tim Sherwood when he could have bought anyone in the world. Fair enough, he won the title but he’s using the same approach 20 years later! I blame this whole mess on the fact the board chose to sell to the two American cowboys rather than DIC years ago. If Dalglish takes a more ‘modern’ and cosmopolitan approach to his transfers then we stand a chance otherwise i’ll have to stop renewing my season ticket…..
anfield rd dreamer
28. Jan, 2012
Jubes Medina
League requirment for premier league squads, minimum of 8 homegrown senior players in squad, Liverpool have 8.
Kennys second stint as manager players signed: Suarez, Carroll, Downing, Adam, Henderson, Bellamy, Coates, Enrique and Doni, 9 players 3 Englishmen, 1 Scott, 1 Welshman and 4 foreign players. So remind me again how Kenny concentrates on British talent as we have the minimum allowed and nearly half of all his signings so far have not been British! But saying that if you want to stop renewing your season ticket let me know because I’m fed up of membership would give my right arm for a season ticket!
Michael Kopite
29. Jan, 2012
The 4 managers i respect in the game, are King Kenny, Rafa, Wenger & Hiddinc, as these guys can win matches without sinking their clubs into debt.
Rafa just takes the piss out of all the top managers and their multi million pound squads as he tactically beats in Spain Barca and Real, and then beats everyone in Europe and due to depth of squad didn’t win the premiership when key players got injured. He beat all the top managers in the league but lost out in depth of squad in drawing with teams at the bottom of the league.
Benitez is excellent at spotting talents and had it not been for Gillette and Hicks, David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata would be playing in the Famous Red Shirt, and not needing to sell Alonso and Mascerano.
What a team that would be, on top with Gerard, Reina and Torres, this is why i feel sick at what we could have achieved on the back winning the champions league. Instead we took a step back with Gillette and Hicks.
When Benitez or any other manager identifies a player he wants, it could be year down the line before he gets him, so planning ahead with some sort of down payment, and also plans ahead to buy 2-3 of other interlink players to accommodate the new system.
With Gillette and Hicks not doing what they said they would do, totally wrecks Benetiz’s plan, and puts Rafa in an awful position of being forced to sell before he can buy, so we can’t improve the squad.
With all the players agents on a cut of the transfer fees, they go to Chelsea, Man.U or Man City for the best pay day, thus why with the clock ticking down on transfer deadline is why Liverpool get offered what’s left over in the transfer window, and Benitez having to sell one of his key players to fund a new player.
Benitez has been truly screwed over, and its a shame Gillette and Hicks did not back him with top players, because i do believe Rafa is tactically astute, he would have won us the premiership and another champions league final.
Saying this Benitez game is equipped for Europe, where i feel Dalglish just wants Liverpool’s tradition of winning the League, the bread and butter, and then talk about cups after.
Because Chelsea came in with 2 days to go in the transfer window to buy Torres for 50m, and because of the financial year ending 31st March that Liverpool would be liable for 25m in Tax, that they bought Carroll, who in fairness was in great form.
So in a nutshell Torres and Babel paid for Suarez and Carroll, with nothing to pay in Tax.
Carroll will eventually come good, and a great investment, as with Eufa’s fair play rule of having to play so many English players, we will get our money back as in 2 years time he will be worth at least what we have paid for him.
I feel King Kenny is the right man now for the job, and pray that Henry backs the club with assassin strikers and wing play makers on the wing, to make the whole thing happen now, and happen now while Gerard can still put in an hour’s shift.
I feel it will be disturbing Gerard not lifting the Premiership because we were never on a playing field for the best players.
If Kenny then with all the tools and support doesn’t crack it, then and only then bring back Benitez, but back Kenny now.
So come on Henry back us, as King Kenny is beating all the top teams and drawing against the bottom ones, and with your investment you’ll be smoking that big cigar of yours in May.
In King Kenny we trust